Vanilla

I gave Elise some ice cream tonight.

"Do you know what those little black spots are?  Those are little pieces of vanilla beans!"

"Dada, vanilla is not a bean!!  It's a frosting!"

A three-year-old on geometry and the Bible

Elise is home sick with me this afternoon.  I showed her a my geometrical drawing on my computer.  She showed me which shapes were circles and which were "straights" (straight lines).  I said, "Yeah, lines are straight, but circles are curvy."  She responded, "No, Dada, circles are not curvy, they are round."

She proceeded to tell me that the circle looks like a merry-go-round, and then she made up another name for it.  I told her I like it when she makes new names for things.  She said, "Yeah, but I don't like it when Adam and Eve make names for things."  "But they were here first, so they were the first ones who got to make up names."  "No, only I'm first.  Adam and Eve are not first."

A three-year-old's mind is fascinating!

Ugly

So ever since reading the Frog Prince, Elise has been thinking about the concept of "ugly".  Today at church, she was playing with her friend "Clara", who is definitely the leader in their friendship.  Clara was bossing Elise around and taking her toys and Elise just took it, although I could tell she was annoyed.  She never fought back.  As soon as we got into the car to go home, Elise says, "I don't like Clara.  Clara is ugly." 

The frog prince

I read a book "The Frog Prince" to Elise and she can't stop talking or thinking about it.  In the book, the princess is very mean to the frog (prince), and this made Elise really upset.  She would yell "Nooo!!!  I love you froggy!" and kiss the book.  She kept asking why the princess didn't like the frog, and when I told her it was because she thought the frog was too ugly, Elise yelled, "No, SHE is the ugly one!  The princess is ugly!  Look at her face, she's ugly!  The frog is so sweet and nice and cute!  I love you froggy!"  At some point, the frog changes into a prince, and this greatly upsets Elise, too.  She wants it to stay a frog forever.

Nightmare

Elise will occasionally have nightmares.  She does a quick sniffling thing, with no tears, and doesn't seem to wake up when we try to wake her up.  These are apparently pretty common.  Anyway, this morning, she was having a nightmare and she woke up crying with a few tears coming out.  She said that she dreamed that I took her leaves.  She kept saying, "You took away my leaves!".  I tried explaining to her that it was just a bad dream but I think she had a hard time distinguishing dream from reality because she still seemed a bit hurt all morning.

Also, I just noticed that the title of this blog is our old street, when we will likely live in our current street indefinitely.  Never thought we were going to move any time soon!

Funny things

I'm recording our conversation right now:

Elise: I was sad at school today. 
Me: Why?
Elise: Luca and me were sad because we were just walking around doing sad things because we were so lonely.  Luca and me, we were walking around and holding hands like this with sad faces (mimics walking around with Luca was a sad face).
Me: Why can't be friends with Luca?
Elise: He can be my friend.  But Leah doesn't want to play with us because she keeps following, following, following us.
Me: Don't you want to be friends with Leah?
Elise: Yes, but she keeps walking around with Luca and me.
Me: She wants to be your friend.
Elise: I don't want to her friend.
Me: You said that you were lonely
Elise: No, Luca and me were BOTH lonely.
Me: What does lonely mean?
Elise: Sad things, not happy things.  Lonely means when you are sad.
Me: But WHY were you sad?
Elise: Because nobody else wanted to play with us.
Me: Like who?
Elise: (starts naming all of her friends)
Me: Didn't Leah want to play with you?
Elise: No, she kept following, following, following us.  

Earlier today:
Elise: I think ants are sad because they're just looking for their mommy and daddy.  They don't have a home.  We should share our house with the ants.  We shouldn't say that ants are gross.  We should say that ants are pretty. Oh little ant, you are so pretty!  We should say that.

We have to share our house with Nala (our neighbor cat), too.  Because she wants a house and she doesn't have a house. 

Silly Trick

Elise was begging Mar to turn on "Sofia the First," but Mar said no.

Elise said, "Do you want to see a silly trick?"  Mar replied, "Of course."

Elise:  "First you have to turn on the show!"